ATLANTA– As the East Coast prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Florence in the coming days, Georgia Power is actively monitoring the storm and coordinating with emergency partners, including GEMA and the Mutual Assistance Network.

Georgia Power reminds customers to keep safety first during severe weather and offers the following storm tips: before a storm, stay aware and check the weather forecast before heading outdoors, turn off air conditioners as power surges can overload them and charge cell phones in case you lose power; during a storm, take shelter inside a sturdy building away from windows and doors, avoid contact with conductors of electricity—appliances, metal objects and water; and after a storm never touch any downed or low hanging wire, including telephone or TV wires that touch a power line, never pull tree limbs off of power lines yourself or enter areas with debris or downed trees as downed power lines may be buried in wreckage.

Some tools available for severe weather year round are: free outage alerts, Outage and Storm Center, an outage map, housed within the Outage and Storm Center, Georgia Power’s mobile app and twitter account, and an emergency plan and kit.

Georgia Power is part of a national mutual assistance network consisting of dozens of utilities from around the country. As part of this partnership, Georgia Power line crews provide assistance to other utilities when service to their customers is interrupted due to severe weather. Though no requests for Mutual Assistance have been made yet, Georgia Power will not release crews to other states to assist in Florence restoration until it is certain that Georgia will not be impacted. Georgia Power is also able to tap into reinforcements when needed to restore power quickly to Georgia customers. The company is holding all Georgia Power resources in Georgia in advance of Hurricane Florence and is in touch with other mutual assistance network utilities to ensure coordination and access to additional resources if needed following the storm.

Just last year, Hurricane Irma broke or damaged approximately 1,500 power poles, and more than 2,400 trees brought down nearly 230 miles of wire across the state. 

Georgia Power restored power to nearly one million customers impacted by Hurricane Irma quickly and safely by fully deploying company resources and leveraging the mutual assistance network in the week following the storm.